An international team of Earth scientists has used eight Earth system model simulations of climate under the Geoengineering Model Intercomparison Project to predict the change in the number of hurricanes and other types of tropical storms that would occur over the next fifty years if sulfate aerosols were injected into the atmosphere to mitigate the impact of global warming. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers describe the models and what they showed and suggest that such injections if done on a massive scale, might prove moderately effective—though they note that a different type of aerosol would have to be used to prevent harm to the ozone layer.

As the planet keeps warming and efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions enough to make a difference fail, scientist have begun turning to other ways to mitigate problems in the future related to warmer temperatures and higher ocean levels, such as an increase in the number and intensity of hurricanes.